Previous entry: https://plus.google.com/107856115406205338162/posts/QzSQXJCyWWx

Previous entry: https://plus.google.com/107856115406205338162/posts/QzSQXJCyWWx

The Reach – Episode 1

Memories and Meetings

Situation

Drop Troops of unknown origin and for an unknown purpose fall on Surge City. A sprawl on Maenali II, a dry hot dominantly industrialized planet that is under the thumb of the overly powerful Sahl Consortium.

Protagonists

Emet Kessner — The Honed

Belief 1: People are in danger, and as the honed I must aid them. I will save people from the disaster that fell upon the city.

Belief 2: The Mayor of the city is a horrid corrupt person whose mere rule is pain to his people, if I see him close, I’ll punch him.

Belief 3: Enhanced humans can never hope to be as perfect as me and my kind. We are better in everything.

Dr. Veleris Grant — The Catabolist

Belief 1: The city is in chaos, I now have the opportunity to go out and get some ‘ware without getting noticed, I will seek out one of the impact zones.

Belief 2: Dealings with the Yavlin (=alien omni-tool that integrated into his body) are considered uncouth by many; to keep it a secret I need to find a way to conceal it in all realities.

Belief 3: People have free will and choice, someone should never be forced/forbidden to get cyberware(removed), I will defend choice.

Guide Andronicus — The Seeker

Belief 1: The garden and the people in it are my responsibility; I will personally talk to the ‘guest’ and convince it to leave peacefully.

Belief 2: The loss of contact with Dr Veleris Grant concerns us greatly; I need to secure the Yavlin.

Belief 3: The needs of the faith go before my own; I will do whatever is necessary to strengthen our stronghold in the Maenali system,

so that no human will be left behind when we transcend.

Begin of session moves

[Potential]: As Emet grabs his leather-look vibrant red jacket, passing a concerned concierge as he runs out of the hotel to swing himself onto his flashy Gou-Mang PowerBike, he’ll only have one humanity to use for saving people.

[Communion]: Miss! One of the wants is +memoryloss as the Faith of Unbound Humanity has tech to share and store memories. And as Andron’s apprentice rips him out of that Digisphere meditation to save him from the incoming drop on his garden, some memories are left behind for now.

[Question]: What or who, if anything should I renounce?

Andron, our ancient Seeker, sends his apprentice to collect the people adjacent to the Garden so they can be cared for as he himself tries to discern actual threat levels. Turning to what must have ruined the center of his Garden of Guidance he is faced with a perimeter of “keep out” barriers, set up in mixed reality, shielding whatever is happening on the inside.

After [analyzing] the situation he is sure the dome itself won’t come crashing down from the damage but the AR barrier is not just blocking view, it also has counter-measures to be mindful of, should he try to pass through it.

He also realizes, he apparently set himself a reminder to get in touch “after meditation: the Dr, contact id here” but can’t recall who this person is and what thing of importance of his they got. For now he let’s it stay blinking in his peripheral vision.

Meanwhile, Emet races off on his hover bike, heading towards the nearest impact site. Not caring for the automated traffic systems that are wrestling with the emergency situation. As he turns a corner, he sees he is heading right towards a wall of flame, a platoon of some Corp Security falling back from it with their wounded.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Emet punches the throttle to skip the wall of flame that’s been caused by some incendiary munition. Mastering the [risk] without flaw, he is presented with a chaotic scenery behind it: several wounded huddling to one side, a 20m tall Mecha lobbing incendiary grenades into several streets to prevent direct chases, fire all over, heavy black smoke billowing out of one of the apartment complexes where a grenade has gone astray.

As he lets his hover bike float to the streets, closing his eyes to take in alarms, calls for help and desperation, [analyzing] where his help is needed the most. His concentration is disrupted, though (a miss!), as one of the black-clad sec guards calls out to him, declaring his intention of confiscating his bike.

By now, Dr. Grant is in the streets, concealed and even without eye sight (his cybernetic eyes were rejected by the Yavlin), he might be the one with the most grasp on the situation: Relying on his altered neurochip, he uses anything connected to the Veil to navigate the streets—which turns out easier to do with all ad-blockers turned off, walkways and all traced neatly by AR. He has his goal set as he managed to get a beat on a Drop Trooper Mecha that was damaged by a botched landing. Gotten a [lift of the Veil] by hijacking two public observer drones giving him additional video feeds to track it by foot.

Emet decides to play ball, especially seeing a young woman desperate to get into the apartment complex. In part also because he cannot id the “cop” who is holding up an AR badge as he is lacking any interface to perceive it.

As that one is speeding off with his bike, he kicks down the door, startling the young woman. She falls back, in tears, and incoherently pleads that two kids are still inside.

He rushes into the smoke, only to re-emerge 5 seconds later: what apartment number are the actually in?

Nine stories up he is sure, there is a good chance to save the kids. It’s the other wing of the building that is actually on fire and its security measures are holding it off for now from spreading. It also makes him pause as the apartment door sealed itself with hardened foam.

With an exceptional feat of strength [using his one humanity] he rips out the door and it goes clattering into the hallway behind him. The kitchen wall has started to bubble but he does find the kids in another room: hooked up on VR and with tubes in their veins feeding some sort of sedatives.

This sight sets off his anger as he tries to decide how he wants to deal [miss on analyze] with this, he feels the cold nozzle of a gun put against the back of his head.

A twist of the body, a grip onto the threat’s arm, a bend against the joint, the gun goes clattering and yet [neutralizing] his attacker fails (another miss!) as a second one busts a bat into his face, sending him flying back against the window, making his consciousness give. Just as the district in background goes dark as well.

Out of this darkness emerges the silhouette of Dr. Grant, as we’ve cut to a dark alley in a restricted, mostly AR-less zone: he has followed the damaged scout to one of the Spires that are power nodes that cut the city vertically. It’s moving across the wide gang-way toward it, pulling one leg after it.

Dr. Grant is feeling elated now, this is a great opportunity, the Mecha also has his sensors damaged, making it vulnerable [Wrench in the Gears] to be approached unnoticed from one side. And there is a clear path, 4m to cross the alley, feeling along the walls, a gap of 3m, along the railing. The most difficult part, up a ladder with only one arm, should bring him level with the machine’s head, still to the blinded side. But the things seems to interface with the Spire, head lowered.

Jumping into action, he makes it but had to [risk] that later its owner might be able to reconstruct footage of him (partially success). Using the drone to give him vision, zooming in tight on the sensory parts, the Yavlin’s antennae emerge from the his clothing and wielding a particle scalpel, Dr. Grant tries to [scrounge] directly from an active mech.

So, engulfed in concentration, he is taking in utter surprise as his torso is gripped in the hard armored good hand of the robot. Caught and lifted off of his feet, the mech cocking its head taking in this strange interloper.

This is when Andron, upon having reassured himself that his apprentice is on task, decides to give this Dr. in his contacts a call, after all, they might need one soon, depending how much more mayhem is going to go down.

We get a strange exchange with Andron trying to navigate that he doesn’t know who he is reaching out to and with Dr. Grant sending the video feed of the drone back to illustrate his predicament. He goes right away to [lean on] the Guide to help him out of this situation, having been the one to fix his cybernetics up when he arrived in system.

This pushes Andron to pass through the AR barrier to find out what is going on inside, he navigates the [risk] of feedback easily but gets an incoming call for a different kind of help (partial hit).

As he looks out behind a boulder, over the crash site: a heavy mecha has set up some kind of in field command center, two drones covering it as it’s busy.

This is when city counselor Addison pings him for help; she’s a got a group of her constituents needing shelter and asks for sanctuary for them. Andron quickly agrees, Giri is now owed both ways, instead of being erased.

He then steps out, to approach the Drop Trooper with arms open. Immediately spotted by one the drones, the mech points anti-personnel weaponry at him, loudspeakers urging him to get lost.

Yet, Andron calmy approaches closer, asking what it is doing in his Garden. Noticing that the mech is actually painted with a sign resembling his old order. This is juxtaposed with a rather a disparaging attitude and a slow loss of patience by whoever is speaking to him.

But as Andron insists that he wants to ensure the safety of those people and showing his face behind mask and Veil, a projection of apparently the pilot appears in front of the hunched over robot’s chest. She assures him, if he keeps out their way, no one will get harmed. He’s also got his [Answer] to his [Question]: he will renounce his claim on the Garden to the Ni Tai Mercs for the safety of his congregation.

Andron seems ostensibly satisfied but then turns back once more, sending the recording of Dr. Grant caught by one of her company over. Her curiosity peaked, a four-way call is opened to Vitali the scout pilot and Dr. Grant. Andron, with insurance of Dr. Grant’s non-malicious intentions, manages to [sway] the Captain to let him go.

The call closes and Andron and Cpt. Wakeman exchange names, he now owes her Giri for this favor while having fulfilled his to Dr. Grant.

Emet comes to, hearing an argument between his two attackers who have apparently realized who he is. And that there might have hit a jackpot if they could ransom him off to his father. He gets a good sense of his situation [analyze], he is still in the apartment only minutes later.

Rather non-chalantly, Emet sits up with a smile, even though he has hands and feet tied in zip-locks. He challenges their “ridiculous idea” and wraps them up in a conversation, using their strife and nervousness to [divert] their attention to get his hands free.

He tricks them well enough, they don’t notice how he manages to free his hands and he gets an opening as he leads them into an argument where there is a moment when they are fixated on each other.

It doesn’t take a second thought and Emet leaps to his feet of his sitting position, goes for the more dangerous threat, the one with the gun to neutralize them both: disarming her, pivoting and sending her flying into the other one.

[Dismayed] by how quickly this situation got turned around and at the sight of the gun in Emet’s hand now, the thug with the distorted voice grabs one of their loot bags and takes off. The woman on the floor, fully expecting to be shot, shuffles back on her ass but Emet just gives her a warning and she can’t scramble away fast enough as she realizes her chance.

Disassembling the firearm and scattering the pieces, he turns back to the kids. No patience now, he rips them out of their VR and pulls them out. Shocked and still under the sedatives, they are drowsy and inanimate.

We see him emerge from the smoking building, carrying them under each arm and passing them into the care of their older sister [+2 humanity for saving them, yay!]. The place now busy with emergency drones and personnel.

And the reporters with camera drones.

End of session: Beliefs!

The Honed got into trouble and out of it by being physically dominant and saving people whose way he despises. [2]xp

The Catabolist got into trouble for the daring stunt of trying to scrounge junkware from an active mecha. [2]xp

The Seeker got challenged on keeping people of the faith safe and on recovering the Yavlin he entrusted to Dr. Grant. [1+1]xp

Next episode:

https://plus.google.com/107856115406205338162/posts/AM9PAfKLE5j

######

Thoughts and reflections

My main aim of a first session like this was to spotlight what the characters are about and what they shine at.

It was really a shame, though, that the Catabolist rolled a 6 on his [scrounge] move. There might have been a +1 forward that we missed from an [analyze] that would have bumped him up. The player also kicked himself for not using his receptivity drug for a bonus.

But hey, the scene was great that came out of this.

I do wonder how things will go with the Honed being a playbook so focused on physical feats and saving people. And the other two being aimed much less at violent conflicts. The Seeker has the means—we haven’t seen how cybernetically amped up he is—but his faith is dogmatic, peaceful and about morality.

I also failed to get my players to use the [probe] move which I was hoping for. I will need to entangle them more in interpersonal stuff but this beginning session they brushed past NPCs and weren’t taking much interest in them:

The Honed simply let the cop take his bike, basically went past the crying woman “your predicament is the object of my purpose”-like. Using situation and physical ability more than interest in the looters and their motivation/background to overcome obstacles.

The Catabolist was never really in a position to, this session.

The Seeker had interactions but they were too aloof/too interested in keeping things ambiguous, which is cool as it says much about the character. Yet, the whole Cpt. Wakeman projecting a video feed was there to enable a deeper interaction.

There was also a lot of stuff happening, so something was bound to fall by the wayside. And it is certainly not too late to engage people on the basis of what has happened.

So, I’m not too worried about this. And I get that players need to find a feel for their characters, too, before they can engage other NPCs in more depth.

Same goes for Beliefs, from my experience with Burning Wheel. They need a session or two to get rolling and intertwined as we get more comfortable with the world and story we are exploring.

I’m looking forward to how they shift from the first session, now.

The Final Question

I don’t feel ready to settle on this, yet. But I feel the question the story will revolve around will have to do with “what is the next step for humans?”

Emet has strong (conservative) feelings about this; Andron is angling for a large scale readiness for as much of humanity as possible; Grant is all about the merging with an alien lifeform and tech.

So there are options and I am wondering how they will solidify in the actual action and narrative that happens on-screen.

Also: Myth of Progress, anyone?

Here is the Giri Map at the end of the session: